Liverpool and Tottenham fans face a soaring bill for their attempts to get to the Champions League final in Madrid on 1 June.
Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

Now that they have caught their breath, many Liverpool and Tottenham fans say their delight at qualifying for the Champions League final has been tempered by the prices they are facing to get to Madrid to watch the game.

The cost of seats on flights to the city have rocketed to more than £1,300 on the weekend of the 1 June game – more than 12 times the usual rate. At the same time Airbnb bookings have been cancelled by hosts demanding triple the price they originally offered. And the face-value price even for some restricted view match tickets is more than £400.

Joe Blott, chair of Liverpool’s Spirit of Shankly supporters group, says: “The absolute joy of getting to the final, particularly the way we did, is tainted because of the astronomical expense of getting to Madrid.”

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Fans have been forced to plan increasingly circuitous routes to Madrid but say they are still struggling to avoid being ripped off.

Chris Anderson, a Liverpool fan, is on the verge of giving up trying to get there for a price he can afford. “I’ve tried every single flight route possible. I even considered getting a ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao. And I had an Airbnb booked but they cancelled on Wednesday morning and said the price had gone up to £1,000 per night.”

Anderson had just been on hold to a travel company for 45 minutes only to be told that the price of the trip to Madrid via Malaga he had provisionally booked had risen from £266 to £1,200.

He said: “If I wanted to go the week after I could probably go to Madrid and back for £100. The whole thing is really sad. This is no way to treat football fans.”

Its chief executive, Kevin Miles, said: “Every time one English club qualifies for a European final there’s always huge demand for transport, accommodation and tickets. Add another well-supported English club into the mix and the situation gets doubly bad. It’s outrageous, but unfortunately it’s par for the course.”

He said the hiked prices of flights and accommodation was testing the loyalty of fans to the limits. “Fans will go to huge lengths to follow their team, and yet feel that every penny is being squeezed out of that loyalty.”

The federation is urging Liverpool and Tottenham to put on more charter flights to help fans reach the game.

“Clubs benefit from this massive support all year round and they stand to make a huge amount from the final. They should be looking to see what they can do to facilitate what they can do to get fans to the games.

“If they don’t, fans will end up taking out loans, running up credit card bills and spending money they can’t really afford to get there.”

Samantha Ramm, a Tottenham supporter in Bognor Regis, is desperate to get to game but says she is effectively priced out.

“I’m a huge Spurs fan and I’d absolutely love to go, but it would be a minimum of £2,000 and as it’s only three weeks away there’s no way to save up.”

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“The way prices have been put up makes it near impossible. Everyone is trying to cash in, especially with Liverpool going through as well.”

The Spirit of Shankly is urging Uefa and football clubs to do more to help fans reach the game. Blott said: “Uefa should be putting a price cap on away tickets. There are plenty of corporate sponsors to get money from. Ideally we would be looking at prices of around £30.

“And the clubs make lots of money out of European competition. They need to acknowledge the sacrifice of fans and do something to assist them.

“Without real fans there’s no atmosphere, and the kind of atmosphere that we saw on Tuesday night is not going to happen if everyone is priced out.”

Liverpool and Tottenham have each been allocated 16,613 tickets. Liverpool have said the cheapest tickets cost £60, but only account for a fifth of their allocation. In addition 54% of tickets are priced at £154, 21% at £385 and 5% at £513.

The Liverpool region mayor, Steve Rotheram, accused easyJet of profiteering. He tweeted: “Hiking up prices by 683% for return flights to Madrid is quite simply profiteering from the passion of football fans. This is nothing new but entirely shameful.”

EasyJet denied it had deliberately increased prices. A spokeswoman said: “Our pricing is demand-led, which means that as more seats are booked on a flight the price will rise.”

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Blott says the rules of normal economics don’t work for football fans. “I’m not going to support another club just because it might be a cheaper offer. You can’t go another day. You have to go on the 1 June. There’s no choice. That’s a monopoly.”

The Association of Madrid Hotel Businesses said the final would again allow the city to demonstrate its capacity to host international sporting events.

“It’s also a great opportunity for the thousands of fans who will visit during those days to experience for themselves the excellent service of Madrid’s hotels, as well as our diverse cultural, gastronomic and leisure attractions,” it said.

The association did not respond to questions about whether its members planned to raise their prices - nor whether there were measures in place to prevent opportunistic price hiking.

Matt Loughney, the owner of the James Joyce Irish pub in central Madrid, is looking forward to a busy few days.

“The flight prices have gone bananas and there’ll be charter flights. It should be a really good festive few days. Tickets are going to go for silly prices.”

But he gave short shrift to the idea of trying cashing in by putting up his own prices.

“God no! Jesus no! People can be absolute shysters about it,” he said.

“The hotels here can take advantage of it and I can just imagine what Airbnb is going to be charging. But we’ve always kept the prices as they are on New Year’s Eve because it’s a lot of regulars, so a short-term gain but long-term destruction. It would be taking the piss.”